_The Large Catechism_
by Dr. Martin Luther
Translated by F. Bente and W. H. T. Dau
Published in:
_Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books
of the Ev. Lutheran Church._
(St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), pp. 565-773
Part Third.
OF PRAYER.
The Lord's Prayer.
We have now heard what we must do and believe, in which things
the best and happiest life consists. Now follows the third
part, how we ought to pray. For since we are so situated that
no man can perfectly keep the Ten Commandments, even though he
have begun to believe, and since the devil with all his power
together with the world and our own flesh, resists our
endeavors, nothing is so necessary as that we should
continually resort to the ear of God, call upon Him, and pray
to Him, that He would give, preserve, and increase in us faith
and the fulfilment of the Ten Commandments, and that He would
remove everything that is in our way and opposes us therein.
But that we might know what and how to pray, our Lord Christ
has Himself taught us both the mode and the words, as we shall
see.
But before we explain the Lord's Prayer part by part, it is
most necessary first to exhort and incite people to prayer, as
Christ and the apostles also have done. And the first matter
is to know that it is our duty to pray because of God's
commandment. For thus we heard in the Second Commandment: Thou
shalt not take the name of the lord, thy God, in vain, that we
are there required to praise that holy name, and call upon it
in every need, or to pray. For to call upon the name of God is
nothing else than to pray. Prayer is therefore as strictly and
earnestly commanded as all other commandments: to have no
other God, not to kill, not to steal, etc. Let no one think
that it is all the same whether he pray or not, as vulgar
people do, who grope in such delusion and ask Why should I
pray? Who knows whether God heeds or will hear my prayer? If I
do not pray, some one else will. And thus they fall into the
habit of never praying, and frame a pretext, as though we
taught that there is no duty or need of prayer, because we
reject false and hypocritical prayers.
But this is true indeed that such prayers as have been offered
hitherto when men were babbling and bawling in the churches
were no prayers. For such external matters, when they are
properly observed, may be a good exercise for young children,
scholars, and simple persons, and may be called singing or
reading, but not really praying. But praying, as the Second
Commandment teaches, is to call upon God in every need. This
He requires of us, and has not left it to our choice. But it
is our duty and obligation to pray if we would be Christians,
as much as it is our duty and obligation to obey our parents
and the government; for by calling upon it and praying the
name of God is honored and profitably employed. This you must
note above all things, that thereby you may silence and repel
such thoughts as would keep and deter us from prayer. For just
as it would be idle for a son to say to his father, "Of what
advantage is my obedience? I will go and do what I can; it is
all the same"; but there stands the commandment, Thou shalt
and must do it, so also here it is not left to my will to do
it or leave it undone, but prayer shall and must be offered at
the risk of God's wrath and displeasure.
This is therefore to be understood and noted before everything
else, in order that thereby we may silence and repel the
thoughts which would keep and deter us from praying, as though
it were not of much consequence if we do not pray, or as
though it were commanded those who are holier and in better
favor with God than we; as, indeed, the human heart is by
nature so despondent that it always flees from God and
imagines that He does not wish or desire our prayer, because
we are sinners and have merited nothing but wrath. Against
such thoughts (I say) we should regard this commandment and
turn to God, that we may not by such disobedience excite His
anger still more. For by this commandment He gives us plainly
to understand that He will not cast us from Him nor chase us
away, although we are sinners, but rather draw us to Himself,
so that we might humble ourselves before Him, bewail this
misery and plight of ours, and pray for grace and help.
Therefore we read in the Scriptures that He is angry also with
those who were smitten for their sin, because they did not
return to Him and by their prayers assuage His wrath and seek
His grace.
Now, from the fact that it is so solemnly commanded to pray,
you are to conclude and think, that no one should by any means
despise his prayer, but rather set great store by it, and
always seek an illustration from the other commandments. A
child should by no means despise his obedience to father and
mother, but should always think: This work is a work of
obedience, and what I do I do with no other intention than
that I may walk in the obedience and commandment of God, on
which I can settle and stand firm, and esteem it a great
thing, not on account of my worthiness, but on account of the
commandment. So here also, what and for what we pray we should
regard as demanded by God and done in obedience to Him, and
should reflect thus: On my account it would amount to nothing;
but it shall avail, for the reason that God has commanded it.
Therefore everybody, no matter what he has to say in prayer,
should always come before God in obedience to this
commandment.
We pray, therefore, and exhort every one most diligently to
take this to heart and by no means to despise our prayer. For
hitherto it has been taught thus in the devil's name that no
one regarded these things, and men supposed it to be
sufficient to have done the work, whether God would hear it or
not. But that is staking prayer on a risk, and murmuring it at
a venture, and therefore it is a lost prayer. For we allow
such thoughts as these to lead us astray and deter us: I am
not holy or worthy enough; if I were as godly and holy as St.
Peter or St. Paul, then I would pray. But put such thoughts
far away, for just the same commandment which applied to St.
Paul applies also to me; and the Second Commandment is given
as much on my account as on his account, so that he can boast
of no better or holier commandment.
Therefore you should say: My prayer is as precious, holy, and
pleasing to God as that of St. Paul or of the most holy
saints. This is the reason: For I will gladly grant that he is
holier in his person, but not on account of the commandment;
since God does not regard prayer on account of the person, but
on account of His word and obedience thereto. For on the
commandment on which all the saints rest their prayer I, too,
rest mine. Moreover I pray for the same thing for which they
all pray and ever have prayed; besides, I have just as great a
need of it as those great saints, yea, even a greater one than
they.
Let this be the first and most important point, that all our
prayers must be based and rest upon obedience to God,
irrespective of our person, whether we be sinners or saints,
worthy or unworthy. And we must know that God will not have it
treated as a jest, but be angry, and punish all who do not
pray, as surely as He punishes all other disobedience; next,
that He will not suffer our prayers to be in vain or lost. For
if He did not intend to answer your prayer, He would not bid
you pray and add such a severe commandment to it.
In the second place, we should be the more urged and incited
to pray because God has also added a promise, and declared
that it shall surely be done to us as we pray, as He says Ps.
50, 15: Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver
thee. And Christ in the Gospel of St. Matthew, 7, 7: Ask, and
it shall be given you. For every one that asketh receiveth.
Such promises ought certainly to encourage and kindle our
hearts to pray with pleasure and delight, since He testifies
with His [own] word that our prayer is heartily pleasing to
Him, moreover, that it shall assuredly be heard and granted,
in order that we may not despise it or think lightly of it,
and pray at a venture.
This you can hold up to Him and say: Here I come, dear Father,
and pray, not of my own purpose nor upon my own worthiness,
but at Thy commandment and promise, which cannot fail or
deceive me. Whoever, therefore, does not believe this promise
must know again that he excites God to anger as a person who
most highly dishonors Him and reproaches Him with falsehood.
Besides this, we should be incited and drawn to prayer because
in addition to this commandment and promise God anticipates
us, and Himself arranges the words and form of prayer for us,
and places them upon our lips as to how and what we should
pray, that we may see how heartily He pities us in our
distress, and may never doubt that such prayer is pleasing to
Him and shall certainly be answered; which [the Lord's Prayer]
is a great advantage indeed over all other prayers that we
might compose ourselves. For in them the conscience would ever
be in doubt and say: I have prayed, but who knows how it
pleases Him, or whether I have hit upon the right proportions
and form? Hence there is no nobler prayer to be found upon
earth than the Lord's Prayer which we daily pray because it
has this excellent testimony, that God loves to hear it, which
we ought not to surrender for all the riches of the world.
And it has been prescribed also for this reason that we should
see and consider the distress which ought to urge and compel
us to pray without ceasing. For whoever would pray must have
something to present, state, and name which he desires; if
not, it cannot be called a prayer.
Therefore we have rightly rejected the prayers of monks and
priests, who howl and growl day and night like fiends; but
none of them think of praying for a hair's breadth of
anything. And if we would assemble all the churches, together
with all ecclesiastics, they would be obliged to confess that
they have never from the heart prayed for even a drop of wine.
For none of them has ever purposed to pray from obedience to
God and faith in His promise, nor has any one regarded any
distress, but (when they had done their best) they thought no
further than this, to do a good work, whereby they might repay
God, as being unwilling to take anything from Him, but wishing
only to give Him something.
But where there is to be a true prayer there must be
earnestness. Men must feel their distress, and such distress
as presses them and compels them to call and cry out then
prayer will be made spontaneously, as it ought to be, and men
will require no teaching how to prepare for it and to attain
to the proper devotion. But the distress which ought to
concern us most, both as regards ourselves and every one, you
will find abundantly set forth in the Lord's Prayer. Therefore
it is to serve also to remind us of the same, that we
contemplate it and lay it to heart, lest we become remiss in
prayer. For we all have enough that we lack, but the great
want is that we do not feel nor see it. Therefore God also
requires that you lament and plead such necessities and wants,
not because He does not know them, but that you may kindle
your heart to stronger and greater desires, and make wide and
open your cloak to receive much.
Therefore, every one of us should accustom himself from his
youth daily to pray for all his wants, whenever he is sensible
of anything affecting his interests or that of other people
among whom he may live, as for preachers, the government,
neighbors, domestics, and always (as we have said) to hold up
to God His commandment and promise, knowing that He will not
have them disregarded. This I say because I would like to see
these things brought home again to the people that they might
learn to pray truly, and not go about coldly and
indifferently, whereby they become daily more unfit for
prayer; which is just what the devil desires, and for what he
works with all his powers. For he is well aware what damage
and harm it does him when prayer is in proper practise. For
this we must know, that all our shelter and protection rest in
prayer alone. For we are far too feeble to cope with the devil
and all his power and adherents that set themselves against
us, and they might easily crush us under their feet. Therefore
we must consider and take up those weapons with which
Christians must be armed in order to stand against the devil.
For what do you think has hitherto accomplished such great
things, has checked or quelled the counsels, purposes, murder,
and riot of our enemies, whereby the devil thought to crush
us, together with the Gospel, except that the prayer of a few
godly men intervened like a wall of iron on our side? They
should else have witnessed a far different tragedy, namely,
how the devil would have destroyed all Germany in its own
blood. But now they may confidently deride it and make a mock
of it, however, we shall nevertheless be a match both for
themselves and the devil by prayer alone, if we only persevere
diligently and not become slack. For whenever a godly
Christian prays: Dear Father let Thy will be done, God speaks
from on high and says: Yes, dear child, it shall be so, in
spite of the devil and all the world.
Let this be said as an exhortation, that men may learn, first
of all, to esteem prayer as something great and precious, and
to make a proper distinction between babbling and praying for
something. For we by no means reject prayer, but the bare,
useless howling and murmuring we reject, as Christ Himself
also rejects and prohibits long palavers. Now we shall most
briefly and clearly treat of the Lord's Prayer. Here there is
comprehended in seven successive articles, or petitions, every
need which never ceases to relate to us, and each so great
that it ought to constrain us to keep praying it all our
lives.
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